Procedures for Reviewing and Updating the 2012-13 Cohort Files
No. FY 2013-02Education Information and Accountability Services /
Florida
Department of Education / Contact Information
Cyndi S. Holleman
850-245-9913
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PAPER
Procedures for Reviewing and Updating the 2012-13 Cohort
Table of Contents
Introduction
Procedures for Reviewing and Updating the 2012-13 Cohort
Cohort Graduation Rate Overview
Cohort Build Overview
Adjusting the Cohort
Identifying DJJ Students in the Cohort
Appendix A: Timeline for 2012-13 Cohort Graduation Rate Review
Appendix B: DPS.DISTRICT.FORMAT.Y1213
Appendix C: Examples
Appendix D: Withdrawal Codes and Definitions
Appendix E: How to Calculate Your Federal Uniform Graduation Rates
Appendix F: Programming Steps to Build Cohort File
Appendix G: USING THE FILE DPS##.GQ.F63494.Y12135.DUPS
Appendix H: USING THE FILE DPS##.GQ.F63494.Y12135.DUPS, continued
Appendix I: List of All Applicable File Names and Reports
Appendix J: Critical Issues for the 2012-13 Cohort Review Process
Appendix K: Frequently Asked Questions about Florida’s Cohort Graduation Rates
September 18, 2013Page 1
Procedures for Reviewing and Updating the 2012-13 Cohort Files
Introduction
Accurate dataare necessary to build reliable historical information, measure the achievement of state goals, and report district and state graduation and dropout rates appropriately. Aggressive follow-up on students who have been assigned dropout withdrawal codes will provide more accurate information and can effectively reduce school and district dropout rates and improve graduation rates.
Each district is strongly encouraged to properly utilize withdrawalcodes to accurately reflect the circumstances under which students leave the district. While the Department of Education (FDOE) does allow the opportunity to review and update prior year data for the cohort, districts must strive to submit accurate withdrawal data during the current school year surveys. Accurate data submitted the first time will make the final review process less time-consuming and will most likely yield more accurate results.
It is not the intent of this TAP to provide guidance on how students and withdrawal codes should be reported. School-level staff should direct basic database reporting questions to their local district MIS staff. Further, it is not the intent of this TAP to cover or address all possible circumstances that may occur across the state.
Districts must remember that the cohort review and graduation calculation are separate processes from the school grades process. There is no appeal process for a school’s graduation rate.The cohort review process serves as the “appeals” process for graduation rates.
This TAP contains the following:
- Timeline for review
- File formats
- File names and descriptions
- List of withdrawal codes and descriptions
- Sample reports
- Recommendations for reviewing files
- Definition of how rates are calculated
- FAQs
Procedures for Reviewing and Updating the 2012-13 Cohort
The cohort reviewprocess involves working from a consolidated file with an individual listing of all students in the unadjusted cohort and making corrections directly to this file.
The review process for the cohort:
- Provides districts an easy method to review and update student data in the cohort.
- Allows districts the opportunity to review and revise prior year data as needed for cohort purposes only.
- Providestransparency and accountability regarding how students are counted in the graduation rate.
- Allows flexibility for districts to review and analyze their own data.
- Uses staff and technical resources more efficiently.
Cohort Graduation Rate Overview
Florida’s high school graduation rate is the percentage of students who graduated with a standard diploma within four years of their initial enrollment in ninth grade in the district. Incoming transfer students are included in the appropriate cohort based on their grade level and year of entry. Deceased students and students who withdrew to attend school in another school system that will culminate with a standard diploma are removed from the cohort. Each student in the resulting adjusted cohort receives a final classification as a graduate, dropout or non-graduate. The exact calculation is provided in Appendix E.
Cohort Build Overview
Formats and elements specific for the cohort build process are the same as in prior years and are listed below. The programming steps used to build the cohort are provided in Appendix F.
Student Demographic Information
District Number, Current Enrollment
School Number, Current Enrollment
Student Number Identifier, Florida
Student Name, Legal
Survey Period Code
Grade Level
Birth Date
Year
Student Number Identifier-Alias, Florida
Gender
Race/Ethnicity
Lunch Status
English Language Learner, PK-12
Migrant
Prior School Status/Student Attendance
District Number, Current Enrollment
School Number, Current Enrollment
Student Number Identifier, Florida
School Year
Survey Period Code
Withdrawal Code, PK-12
Withdrawal Date
Student Course Schedule
District Number, Current Enrollment
School Number, Current Enrollment
Student Number Identifier, Florida
Survey Period Code
Fiscal Year
Course Number
Student End-of-Year Status
District Number, Current Enrollment
School Number, Current Enrollment
Student Number Identifier, Florida
School Year
Survey Period Code (always 5)
Grade Promotion Status
Diploma Type
Withdrawal Reason
Grade Level
Withdrawal Date
The cohort is built first by including the following:
- All first-time 9th graders in the district in fall 2009-10 membership
- Incoming transfers on the same schedule to graduate
- New 9th graders in 2009-10
- New 10th graders in 2010-11
- New 11th graders in 2011-12
- New 12th graders in 2012-13
Adjusting the Cohort*
The cohort is then “adjusted” by removing the following:
- Transfers to other public schools (W3A, W3B)
- Transfers to private schools (W04)
- Transfers to home education programs (W24)
- Deceased students (W12)
How to download the files
A text file must be downloaded from Northwest Regional Data Center (NWRDC) and then imported into appropriate software, such as Excel, Access or SAS, for reviewing and editing.The file format is provided in Appendix B. Only those staff with privileges to NWRDC can download this file.
The first preliminary file with data for the first three years of the cohort (2009-10 – 2011-12) will be available April 8, 2013. (See Appendix Afor a complete timeline with due dates and file names.)
*Different rules apply for DJJ students.
Recommendations for Reviewing the Cohort File
Ensure there are noduplicates within the district
This is the first step that should be done at the district level. The file is already sorted alphabetically and should be reviewed by district-level staff to determine duplicates within their district before any other sorting. Sorting the entire file by name will allow the district to determine if there are any duplicated students within the district. FDOE programming uses the Alias ID as the key field to build the cohort. Therefore, if the district erroneously assigns the same student a different Alias ID Number, this student will be listed twice in the cohort, especially if he/she changed schools within the district. This alpha listing is a good first look in reviewing your cohort list. Individual schools would not see the entire cohort list from the other schools and therefore would not know if a student is also on another school’s list, so it is very important that district-level staff review the file for duplicates before disseminating to school-level staff.
Sort the Files
The files can be sorted in various ways:
- Alphabetically
- School Number
- Withdrawal Code
- Subgroup such as Race or At-Risk
Ensure there are noduplicates within the state
Report DPS##.GQ.F63494.Y12135.DUPS will be available in September to assist with locating those students who are coded as dropouts or non-graduates in your cohort but may be enrolled in another district in the state.DO NOT SORT THIS FILE.Districts should be aware that the Alias ID may not be the same from district to district. Therefore, it is necessary to use Last Name along with First Name and the Identifier, Florida ID Number to search for duplicates. This file serves as an excellent tool for districts to review and determine if any of their students were enrolled in another district after leaving their districts.
It is the district’s responsibility to review this file and make the appropriate revisions if a student in the district was later enrolled in another district. Appendix G gives more specific instructions and provides a sample of how the file will be displayed.
Enlist the assistance of school-level staff
Sorting by school number (after reviewing for duplicates within the district) provides an easy way to divide the list according to school and to distribute to school-level staff. It is recommended that the districts develop a secure process for providing the student-level file to the schools. If districts choose to email their reports, they must ensure that the file is password protected.District-level staff should review the final data file prior to submitting to FDOE.
It is recommended thatdistrict staff require a school designee to verify by signature that their school’s data has been reviewed for accuracy prior to submission to FDOE. High schools cannot appeal their school gradesbecause of the graduation rate.
Pay special attention to those students who count against the cohort
Sorting by withdrawal codes allows the districts to generate reports based upon a certain withdrawal code. For example,districts may wish to sort by a specific withdrawal code, such as W15 or DNE, to see how many dropouts they have.
Students coded with transfer codes or withdrawal designation ofW3A, W3B, W04, W24 and W12will be removed from the school/district unadjusted cohort.
The most critical withdrawal codes to review are those codes that count against your district or school cohort: students coded as dropouts, students coded as still being enrolled in school (W01 or W02), or students coded as certificate of completion recipients.
Three-Year Preliminary File
Some districts request a three-year preliminary file to review prior to the close of the current Survey 5 data. It is not a requirement to review this file. Districts must remember that the three-year preliminary file has only the data for years 2009-10 to 2011-12.Most students in the three-year preliminary file will have a withdrawal code of W01, indicating that they are still in school. Most students coded with W01 in 2011-12 would be expected to have a diploma code in the four-year file available after the close of Survey 5 in August. These codes should be reviewed after the four-year file is available.
The intent of the preliminary file is for districts to ensure all dropouts and students who transferred have been reported correctly. Most diploma codes will not be reported in this file.
Is the school number correct?
Update the school number in the appropriate field as necessary if the school number is incorrect. This should not occur very often. School number corrections to a DJJ facility and adult education centers are not accepted, and the school number must be in the Master School Identification File.
Is the withdrawal date correct?
Districts should ensure that the withdrawal date is as accurate as possible. Students coded as a W3A at the end of the fourth year will be matched against Survey 6 the following year for enrollment. A list of those students not located in another district will be provided for the district’s review. Documentation for a records request may be required to validate the end-of-year transfer.
It is not uncommon for students to withdraw at the end of the school year in their fourth year of high school with a W3A, W3B, W04 or W24; however, these codes indicate that the student did not graduate within four years. It is very important that the correct withdrawal date appears in the file.
Technically, a student withdrawing at the end of the school year with a W3A indicates that the student did not graduate within four years.
Transfers to adult education centers
Students transferring to an adult education center located in another district or state must be reported with withdrawal code W26, not W3A or W3B. If it is determined via a records request or some other means that the student actually enrolled in another K-12 school and not the adult education center, then the transfer code may be changed to W3A or W3B.
Should this student be in this cohort?
The cohort is built upon the grade level of a student, but mid-year promotions, credit recovery programs, grade skipping, etc.cause some students to be included in a cohort a year early. If you find a student who is listed in the cohort too early, mark this student as a DEL in the update field. In so doing, the district should keep records of this studentas he must be manually added into the following year’s cohort file in order to be counted as a graduate in the correct cohort.
Incoming 8thgraders with high school credits
All students matriculating from middle school to high school should be coded as a 9th grader at the beginning of the school year regardless of the number of high school credits the student has earned.
Early graduates
Diploma codes for students graduating with 18 credit hours or with 24 hours in less than four years are not counted until their cohort is scheduled to graduate.
Students who were scheduled to graduate in 2013-14 but actually graduated in 2012-13 are NOT TO BE ADDED TO THE 2012-13 COHORT FILE. These students will count as graduates with their cohort in 2013-14 and will appear in that file.
It is very important that the early graduates count with their cohort.
Doesthis school serve 9th through 12th grade?
Pay special attention to the types of schools included in the file. The cohort is built based upon the grade level and not the school type. A student enrolled in an elementary or middle school andincorrectly reported with a grade level of 9-12, will cause a cohort to be generated for that school and will be included in the district’s totals. These students should be updated with DEL to be removed from the cohort. This is a quality check that should be done at the district level.
Review students flagged as “at-risk”
The graduation rate for those students identified as at-risk is very important in the high school grade calculations. Sorting by this subgroupfor all students coded “Y” will provide the exact list of students in your cohort identified as at-risk.This code can be updated if our data is incorrect. This designation is applicable only to those students enrolled in the eighth grade in a Florida public school.
Reporting adult diplomas and GEDs
Districts should report adult diploma or GED data, if available, for all students listed in their cohort. Adult students who earned adult diplomas or GEDs in your district adult education centers but were never enrolled in your district’s PK-12 system or had a break in service (e.g., transferred to another district or private school immediately prior to enrollment in the adult education program), should not be added to this cohort. The adult diploma or GED is credited to the high school and not the adult education center.
Review all W02 withdrawal codes
Districts must pay special attention to the W02 transfer code. If this is the last withdrawal code for a student within the district,he or she is considered a NON-GRADUATE. This code indicates that the student is still enrolled in the district and thus did not graduate; otherwise he would have a diploma code or a dropout code. If the student transferred to another district, change the code to a W3A. Updating to a W02 will result as a non-graduate.
Identifying DJJ Students in the Cohort
Students who transfer from other states into DJJ facilities in Florida remain with the DJJ school’s cohort. Students who transfer from another district within Florida should be credited back to their most recent home district and count in that cohort per federal guidelines. This step is performed after Survey 5 because of the high mobility of this student population.
FDOE has made concentrated efforts to reduce districts’ burden in reviewing for these students. Districts will note changes to the file format to accommodate the DJJ review. Prior to release of the cohort files the following steps were implemented:
- Removing DJJ students counted in a prior cohort
Compares the list of students assigned to a DJJ facility during the four-year window to three prior year cohorts to eliminate as many of those that were positively identifiedand countedin a prior cohort. (This is done by checking the list of DJJ students against the final cohort files for 2011-12, 2010-11, and 2009-10). Studentsare removed from the 2012-13 cohort file if they are found in a prior cohort. This check is based upon the student’s ID number, birth date, last name, first name and gender.
- Checking for enrollment in a regular high school after the DJJ sentence
If the student was enrolled in a regular school subsequent to his or her DJJ enrollment, the DJJ record has been removed from our end in the district file and no further action is required for that student. Since this is a small population, a statewide comparison is feasible.
- Flagging all remaining DJJ students to their most recent regular high schools
The DJJ school number, DJJ district number, DJJ withdrawal date and DJJwithdrawal codefor the DJJ facility will be provided in the review file with the credited regular high school.
MATCHING RULES FOR THE EDUCATION DATA WAREHOUSE (EDW) (for internal use only):
Rule 1: STUDENT ID, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, BIRTH DATE, DISTRICT, GENDER
Rule 2: STUDENT ID, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, DISTRICT, GENDER
Rule 3: STUDENT ID, LAST NAME, BIRTH DATE, DISTRICT, GENDER
Rule 4: ALIAS STUDENT ID, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, BIRTH DATE, DISTRICT, GENDER